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SOCIAL CENTERS 



44 

IN THE 



SOUTHWEST 



Beginnings 

Why community welfare demands them 

How they are being organized 

and maintained 



NEW EDITION 
Texas Farm and Ranch Publishing Co. 

Dallas, Texas, 1912 



Copyright 1912 

Texas Farm and Ranch Pub. _Co- 

Price 15c Postpaid 






£CI.A305:.- 

r 



o- 






FOREWORD 

In presenting to the public a second 
booklet on social centers, the publishers 
respond to the many requests for infor- 
mation that have come to them from the 
Southwestern states and from practical- 
ly every state in the Union. 

These requests take the form of ques- 
tions as to the origin and growth of the 
social center movement in the South- 
west, the needs and value of the work, 
how social centers may be organized 
and definitely what can be done to sus- 
tain them. This bulletin attempts to 
answer such questions and marks the 
step our section is now taking from a 
discussion of the theory and the need of 
social centers to the practical work of 
organizing and maintaining them. 

'Texas Farm and Ranch 
Publishing Company. 




The cheery Smith Social Center, in Grayson County, Texas — already the 
scene of scores of crowded meetings. 




Prominent contributors in thought and speech, to the Southwestern Confer- 
ence. In the middle, below, are President Holland, of the Con- 
ference, and Professor t Ward, speaker of honor. 



Contents 



Page 

The Social Center Movement 7 

by Charles W. Holman, 
Associate Editor, Farm and Ranch, 
Secretary Southwestern Social Center Con- 
ference. 

When a Neighborhood Gets Overblown 7 

Who Is to Blame in Your Home? 7 

1. Southwestern Social Center Development 8 

First Meeting Great Success 9 

Schools and Communities Earn Libraries 10 

2. Movement Becomes National in Scope 11 

Purpose Both Civic and Social. 11 

Social Center Must Fit Social Needs 11 

Against the "Uplift" Idea 12 

Rural Southwest Sets the Pace 12 

3. How to Organize a Country Social Center 13 

Town and City Social Centers 15 

4. Maintaining the Social Center 15 

5. Subjects for Discussion in Social Centers 17 

6. Social Side of Schoolhouse Gatherings 21 

7. Harnessing Social Forces for Small Town Advance- 

ment 24 

tins 

The Power of the Social Center 26 

by Carroll D. Murphy, 

Farm and Ranch — Holland's Magazine 

Social Center Service. 

1. Social Center Directs and Simplifies Living 26 

2. Makes the Home Town Better to Live In 27 

3. What the Library Means in Social Center Work 27 

4. Good Books the Sign of a Progressive Community 

5. Success through Varied Programs for an Entire 

Season 30 

Suggested Constitution for Neighborhood Civic Clubs 31 

By-Laws and Order of Business 32 

Bibliography 33 




A Social Center "Field Day" at Grandvieiv, Texas, November :.",. 
tvher e the people for miles around got together for a 
typically Southwestern outdoor day of 
social life and recreation. 



1911. 




By the community li splitlog drag" this avenue to the Smit/i Social 

Center is kept the whole year round as you. see. 

Good roads mean good meetings 

and good schools 

—6— 



The Social Center Movement 



CHARLES W. HOLM AN 

ASOCIAL Center is any place where all the people 
of a community frequently gather for free discus- 
sion of public questions and for social, moral and 
recreational activities. The places where "all" the peo- 
ple are most likely to gather are the city hall, the coun- 
ty courthouse and the public school building. Of these 
the public school comes nearest to fulfilling the desires 
of young and old for a common gathering place. There- 
fore, the public school is implied throughout this book- 
let wherever the term "social center" occurs. 

When a Neighborhood Gets Overblown. 

When folks get "puffed up" into believing they 
can get along without neighborliness, it is time to paint 
the school house, light it up and invite ourselves into 
the community sitting-room. 

When we are sure we don't have any town or 
country problems — that our home folks are just the 
best ever — that there's nothing the matter with our 
community spirit — we are threatened with an attack 
of social egotism, and we need the social center. 

At the community schoolhouse we can take off our 
political, religious and society coats, and become shirt 
sleeves workers for democracy, inspired by a sense of 
comradeship and a true civic spirit. But we sometimes 
get so chock full of ourselves — full of personal vanity 
and spiritual sloth — that we "fall down" on the job so- 
ciety has given us. 

Who Is to Blame in Your Home? 

How about your neighborhood ? It is easy to point 
out that Mr. Jones is a rich old curdmudgeon who fights 
all school or other public improvement taxes. But are 

— 7— 



you doing your share? As a parent do you visit the 
school ; do you confer with the teacher on how to make 
the school more efficient and useful to the community? 
Do you attend the meetings of the city council, or of the 
local school board? Do you go out to public meetings 
and take a part in the discussion of improved methods 
of farming, or of some local tax issue ? Do you do your 
part all along the line that connects you with your 
neighborhood life? 

Is your community noted for its well-kept fences, 
its capacious barns, its painted houses and its flower 
yards? Is your schoolhouse easy to reach in rainy 
weather? Has your school a library, a community- 
owned and used talking machine and a stereopticon ? 
If not, who needs the social center, you or the other 
fellow? Which community needs a social center, the 
other fellow's or your own? If you live in a commu- 
nity that needs a tightening of its social ligaments, is 
it your duty to begin this work, or is it the other fel- 
low's? 

One of the happiest signs in this century of dis- 
content is that society at last not only gives the affirm- 
ative answer to the question, "Am I my brother's 
keeper," but is also adding "And I am my brother's 
helper." 

Southwestern Social Center Development 

Nine million people live in the Southwest ; yet the 
section has by no means found itself. If Texas alone 
were developed agriculturally to the point where Illi- 
nois now stands we would be raising the equivalent of 
forty instead of four million bales of cotton. Vast 
tracts of raw lands still await the plow and many set- 
tlements, for lack of railroad facilities, are cut off 
from the world. But other portions of the Southwest 
have been settled for several generations and, in 
these, an agrarian revolution is a very present fact. 
Farm owners in prairie sections have been and still 
are moving townward in large numbers. 

Complicating the problem is a steady stream of 
immigration from other parts of the nation and from 
foreign shores — a stream which, if undiminished for 

—8— 



ten years, will wear away sectional aspects and reduce 
social problems to a common statement. 

The foreign immigrant presents a serious difficul- 
ty. He not only segregates and makes a strong effort 
to reestablish his native customs down to the very 
minutiae of life, but his lower standard of living oper- 
ates to force the native merchant and farmer out of 
business. Still, we must not forget that the foreigner 
has much to contribute to common progress. 

In the Southwest we have also not only landlord 
and tenant complications of stupendous significance, 
but from the very newness and richness of our lands, 
a most pernicious and primitive field crop system of 
farming has become prevalent. Better direction of ef- 
fort will vastly increase the acre production on South- 
western farms, and closer attention to business will 
increase prices of farm products. 

Through the community gathering much will be 
done to make straight the highroad of progress 
through this maze of untoward conditions. 

While all recognize the desirability of focusing so- 
cial forces in a community, it remained for the South- 
western Social Center Conference to point out the vital 
need and great benefits bound to accrue. 

First Meeting Great Success. 

For 29 years Colonel Frank P. Holland, publisher 
of Farm and Ranch and Holland's Magazine, had agi- 
tated community cooperation through his farm jour- 
nal. For months we had kept the social center idea 
constantly before the public. On the first day of Feb- 
ruary, 1911, the time was deemed ripe for a general 
conference. Col. Holland issued the call and financed 
the gathering. We had just sixteen days' time to 
work up an attendance: but 350 delegates came, and 
150 were from outside Dallas. 

This conference held two sessions in the auditor- 
ium of the Dallas high school. We threshed out 
Southwestern problems pretty thoroughly, and began 
a great "get-together" movement for our section. One 
or two things are notable about the meeting. From 
laborer to capitalist, from clergyman to tailor, from 
landlord to tenant, every class was represented. There 



was no dissension. And the press of the Southwest 
hailed it as the most unique and one of the most im- 
portant gatherings ever called together; while publi- 
cations in the East and North recognized it as the first 
of its kind to be held in the world. 

Schools and Communities Earn Libraries. 

As an aid to communities, Farm and Ranch 
placed a library before the schools. This was in co- 
operation with the various state departments of edu- 
cation, and was based on actual cost to us. We also 

furnished a plan 
whereby any school 
district can secure a 
small library and 
add to it each suc- 
ceeding year. 

We began with 
the library because 
not one country 
school in 40 now has 
any books at all ; 
hundreds of town 
schools badly need 
good books, and 
there is but slight 
provision for state 
aid. 

Response has been 
gratifying. Over 300 
schools have aided 
themselves by this 
community plan. We have already distributed 10,000 
volumes, and from ten to fifteen communities are now 
taking up the plan each week. Expertly chosen lists of 
attractive reading for young and old have thus been 
placed within reach of all. The library has proved 
an effective beginning in neighborhood social life. 

State-wide organizations of women, educators, 
farmers and business men have lent their cooperation 
to the social center program, and the press has not 
only given generously of its space, but also editorial 
endorsement of the strongest kind. 




The Glen-dale School whose " Whirlwind Club" 
of eighteen boys and girls aroused, the com- 
munity to a friendly contest and won 
the first Farm and Ranch Library 
in Enst Texas. They have since 
earned an additional set. 



—10— 



So effective has been this combined agitation that 
very few school buildings will be built in the future 
without regard to their possible use by communities 
for other than school purposes. 

Movement Becomes National in Scope 

The great success of the Southwestern Social 
Center Conference led to the calling of a national gath- 
ering at Madison, Wis., under the auspices of the ex- 
tension division of the University of Wisconsin. At 
this gathering the Social Center Association of Amer- 
ica effected the change from a provisional to a perma- 
nent organization. The gathering itself was in a so- 
cial sense the most notable since our fathers "pulled 
off" the Boston Tea Party. 

Purpose Both Civic and Social. 

The purpose of the national social center move- 
ment is to give the school building its widest possible 
range of activity. This becomes both educational and 
social. The educator can extend the usefulness of the 
school to the individual beyond the age of youth 
and prolong this usefulness throughout life. Under 
this division will come all night school work, men's 
and women's gymnastic classes, free lyceum courses, 
etc. For the people the school becomes the natural 
place for social gatherings, for musical entertain- 
ments, for neighborhood meetings of every nature 
that will make life more enjoyable. 

The movement has a further purpose — to develop 
through the men's and women's civic clubs a political 
conscience that is non-partisan — a people who will 
vote for measures and men rather than for parties 
and machines. 

Social Center Must Fit Social Needs. 

The nature of the social center and its relations 
to the people will vary according to section, or whether 
the institution is in city, town or country. It was not 
strange that the delegates from the cities should have 
ideas about the use of public school buildings which 
would not be applicable to open country conditions. 
Thus the city delegates clamoied for the right to use 

—11— 



the school building for free discussion of public ques- 
tions — a use which has been recognized in country dis- 
tricts from time immemorial. But the representatives 
of the farming interest emphasized the economic and 
purely social sides of the question. "The social cen- 
ter in the country will put more money in the farmer's 
purse," said a man from the rural districts. "It will 
solve the troubles of the farmer's wife," said another. 
Again and again was the truth brought home that the 
Southwest must work out its own salvation — that our 
problems are peculiarly our own. 

Against the "Uplift" Idea. 

Another point in connection with this movement 
was the emphasis with which the leading speakers dis- 
claimed any connection with the "uplift" movement. 
A fine distinction was drawn between efforts for the 
people by private citizens and efforts with the people 
by paid public servants. The Madison meeting de- 
rided the idea of "uplifting men and women," when- 
ever the term was applied in the sense of an upper 
class reaching down. It substituted the word "prog- 
ress" for the word "uplift." This is strictly in har- 
mony with Farm and Ranch's well known point of 
view, that, if any "uplifting" is to be done, the farmer 
is the one to do it in his neighborhood. 

It follows that, when we make the schoolhouse a 
social center, we place in the hands of a community 
an instrument for its own salvation. Herein lies the 
great difference between the free use of the school- 
house of yesterday and the social center movement of 
today. In other days we had no idea of giving a neigh- 
borhood a conscious social direction, of creating a 
more ideal community life. Today we work with that 
idea definitely in mind. It is a long civic stride we 
have taken. 

Rural Southwest Sets the Pace. 

In social center development the East is working 
mainly with city population, the Middle West with 
small towns and cities. For progress in rural districts 
the nation looks to the Southwest to set the pace. We 
do not follow, then, but lead in conscious community 

—12— 



building. When it is remembered that in none of the 
Southwestern states is there a state appropriation to 
aid this work, but that every case has been one of spon- 
taneous growth, what we have done is little short of 
remarkable. 

So strong is the sentiment for this work, that 
letters asking for information and for speakers to pre- 
sent the subject come in daily. 

How to Organize a Country Social Center 

A rural school teacher writes : 

"We have been reading about the social center 
movement in Farm and Ranch, and wish to try it out 
in our neighborhood. Can you tell us how to begin?" 

This correspondent is ideally situated to begin so- 
cial center work, because no person, unless it be the 
local minister, comes in closer contact with all the peo- 
ple in her community. 

Let this teacher announce to her pupils on Mon- 
day that on Friday night there will be a meeting in 
the schoolhouse for the purpose of organizing a social 
center. Now, the chances are that a great many will 
not know why the meeting is called, but this, in itself, 
will serve to arouse curiosity. 

It would be well to have some speakers from out- 
side the community; but this is not absolutely neces- 
sary. Each day, as the week passes, she can keep an 
interest stirred up by revealing some new phase about 
the Friday night meeting to the children, and have 
them carry this information to their parents. 

Very likely, when Friday night comes, there will 
be a good crowd. After a chairman has been elected, 
the teacher can then state the object of the meeting, 
telling about the success which other communities 
have had by regular meetings to discuss questions of 
interest to them : such as better crop methods, better 
seed, better market facilities, good roads, better school 
buildings, eouipment, etc. She should then turn the 
attention of the community to the needs of her particu- 
lar school, and seek to awaken a real interest in the in- 
stitution for its betterment. The other speakers should 
talk along similar lines. 

In choosing speakers for the initial meeting, the 

—13— 



teacher should be careful to get men and women of 
known influence, with ability to arouse enthusiasm. 

After the speeches the chairman should call upon 
other citizens for expression of their views, and they 
will usually be unanimous in expressing their convic- 
tion that the whole neighborhood will benefit from such 
regular meetings. Then is the time to strike. The 
teacher should have a citizen move that the community 
hold another meeting the next Friday night. Another 
resident should move that the chairman appoint a 
program and entertainment committees. To insure 
the right kind of workers, the personnel of these com- 
mittees should be made up before the meeting is held. 

At the second meeting "pull off" a rattling good 
program. We suggest that this second program be 
something like the following : 

Opening prayer by the local minister, to be fol- 
lowed by patriotic songs, such as "Columbia," "My 
Country 'Tis of Thee," "Dixie," etc. Sing enough of 
these songs to break the ice and get everybody to feel- 
ing good. Follow this by a recitation or declamation 
by one of the older boys or girls in the school. Then 
let two leading citizens debate some question as : "Re- 
solved, That Cooperation Is Better Than Individual 
Effort in Community Building;" or, "Resolved, That 
a Bond Issue Is Better Than Direct Tax for Building 
Good Roads." If this debate has been properly adver 
tised it will bring people from all over the county. 

Particular emphasis should be laid upon the ne- 
cessity of an open-minded attitude toward all ques- 
tions. After the debate there should be a closing ad- 
dress by, say, the county judge, or the county school 
superintendent, either of whom will be glad to come 
out, 

The program committee should keep very active. 
At either the first or second meeting, have the chair- 
man appoint a live community betterment committee. 
It will be the duty of this committee to devise ways and 
means of securing through community cooperation, in- 
stitutions such as school libraries, stereopticons, etc., 
for the entertainment and education of the citizens. 
This committee should advise constantly with the pro- 
gram committee so as to keep community action al- 

—14— 



ways before the people. If there is no library connect- 
ed with the school, or if the library needs strengthen- 
ing, this will be one of the first things that will catch 
the popular heart and a special Library Committee is 
in order. Every school where these meetings are held 
regularly, should have a small stereopticon or magic 
lantern. 

By such methods a community can veritably res- 
urrect itself, put vigor into its members and do many 
things for its own advancement. But the good accom- 
plished will be in just the degree that these meetings 
are kept up. Five months, however, will work won- 
ders with the backward, self-satisfied neighborhood. 

Town and City Social Centers. 

Any enthusiastic resident, though there should be 
at least two, can adapt this plan suggested for the 
rural school teacher. It does not matter whether the 
neighborhood be in country, town or city. In fact, the 
organization of a city neighborhood bears a close re- 
semblance to that of a rural one. The small town is a 
trifle more complex, because a larger group will find 
the school building its center, 

Maintaining the Social Center 

After the people have agreed to use their school 
building as a clubhouse the next thing is to provide a 
way for keeping the building open and at the service 
of the people, yet safe from fire and other damages. 
In country districts this work can easily be done by vol- 
unteer effort of the young men. But if the building is 
in a town or in a city, it will be better to employ a 
night janitor and caretaker. 

Should the people desire to use certain rooms for 
social activities that require free space, a carpenter 
can easily unscrew the desks and mount them on skids. 
When possible, schools should purchase a movable desk- 
chair. Such a chair is made so it can be adjusted to 
the individual. 

If there are several rooms in the building, the 
people may dedicate one for library and reading room, 
one for social games, one or two for civic or debating 
clubs, while the auditorium will amply meet the needs 

—15— 



of general gatherings. Where communities are get- 
ting ready to build new school buildings they should 
seek expert counsel so as to arrange their buildings 
with a view to community use. Many school districts 
are having structures built with folding walls between 
rooms. In this manner school rooms can be thrown to- 
gether to form auditoriums. 

It is always advisable to have the seats in the audi- 
torium movable, and the floor of hardwood. The peo- 
ple may then easily turn such a room into a combina- 
tion study hall, assembly hall and gymnasium. The 




Gymnasium of the Oklahoma City High School. At this school important 
social center beginnings have been made. 



gymnasium apparatus can be suspended from the ceil- 
ing, to be raised or lowered according to wish. 

The money outlay for these plans need not be 
great. But it is advisable to consult with the extension 
division of your state university when such changes 
are contemplated. The University of Texas furnishes 
advice and architectural plans free to school districts. 

When possible it is better to have civic, social and 
recreational activities in the schoolhouses under the 
auspices of the board of education, or the school trus- 
tees. That body or the town council should pay the 
necessary expenses connected with maintenance of a 

—16— 



social center. If this cannot be done, popular subscrip- 
tions, or entertainments to which admission is charged 
will meet the requirements. 

A few hundred dollars will equip almost any town 
school building for this work. Little money need be 
spent on the country school building; but this idea of 
common use should always be in mind when that com- 
munity builds a rural high school. The people can 
raise funds by cooperative effort to pay for all equip- 
ment. 

Subjects for Discussion in Social Centers 

In every neighborhood there are local questions 
that interest the people more than anything else. 
When the entertainment or program committee gets 
to work in earnest, these subjects will spring up. Dis- 
cussion of them will awaken a keen popular interest 
and always bring out a crowd. 

In the Southwest a debate will never fail to draw 
an appreciative audience. Local issues involving 
broad principles make favorite questions. Recently, 
a community in Cook county, Texas, for its initial 
social center meeting, debated the merits of the Texas 
Agricultural High School law. The Parcels Post is 
another question that has both local and national sig- 
nificance; National Control or National Ownership of 
Express Companies will interest any community where 
fruit or truck shipping is an important item of income 
to its members. Other topics of national scope, upon 
which it is easy to secure reliable information are : 

Coeducation. 

Woman's Suffrage. 

Workmen's Compensation Acts. 

High Cost of Living. 

Woman's Status in the Home. 

Initiative and Referendum. 

The Recall of Political and Judicial Officers. 

A Graduated Income Tax. 

Direct Primaries. 

Subjects on which it is well to have some com- 
petent local person or visitor speak, followed by gen- 
eral discussion, are: 

How Can I Help the Schools? 

—17— 




Proud of winning good books. School at Burton, Texas, whose teacher writes: 

"Boys and girls are reading these books who have never 

before been in the habit of reading.'''' 




I gala day— the presentation of a Farm and Ranch Library to the school by the Modern 

Women's r/ub at Manitou, Okla. A token of the Southwest' s swift and 

ambitious advaneefrom vioneer conditions. 



—18— 




This wide-awake East Texas school earned a library in two evenings. 




Arrival of good books, self-earned, at the Chico, Texas, Institute 



A County-Supported Rest Room in the Court 
House for Country Women. 

Waterworks for the Farm Home. 

The social center on the Smith farm in Grayson 
county, Texas, makes it a point to meet every Friday 
night during the winter months to discuss some farm- 
ing topic. These topics are seasonable and have a 
practical bearing. At one of these meetings the farm- 
ers took up "Corn Seed Selection and Testing/' at 
another, "Why the Cotton Seed of Our Community is 
Inferior and How to Improve It." And at a third 
"Shall We Plant Wheat?" These people also held 
flower planting, tree planting and good roads meetings. 
So valuable have been the points brought out at these 
gatherings that one farmer said — "I have been able 
to increase my crop production ten per cent per acre 
from what I learned here in one night." 

Other subjects of direct interest to Southwestern 
farm communities are: 

Resolved, that Diversified Farming Is More Profi- 
table Than Specialized Farming. 

Resolved, that a Cooperative Laundry (Creamery, 
Ice House, Elevator, or Any Other Common Project) 
Would Benefit Our Community. 

Everyone has something he can contribute to 
these meetings. The young woman just returned from 
college, the athletic young man, the physician, the 
minister — all can aid. 

Perhaps the young woman is an accomplished 
musician. Why not have a volunteer musical organi- 
zation — a string band, a quartet, or a small orchestra ? 
None who remembers the zeal with which he practiced 
to hold his place in the "town band" will doubt but 
this attempt will receive acclamation and a ready re- 
sponse. 

""The athletic young man will gladly impart of his 
gymnasium, football, baseball or track experience, and 
will conduct night classes for the education of the 
body. 

A range of interesting subjects is at the command 
of the physician. His lectures on defective eyes, care 
of the voice, prevention of colds, sanitation of out- 
buildings, adenoid growths, defective hearing, social 

—20— 



responsibility for tuberculosis, typhoid, malaria and 
other preventable diseases will attract large numbers 
of parents and result in many school and community 
reforms. 

The minister can contribute valuable lectures on 
such subjects as Sanitary Laws of the Hebrews, Social 
Reforms in Palestine, The Institutional Church, Moral 
Wastes, etc. 

A life insurance man can always give an interest- 
ing talk on the Fundamentals of Life Insurance. His 
thoughts should bring out an animated discussion of 
the possible advantages of governmental accident and 
life insurance over private companies. 

The social center offers the teacher or the sup- 
erintendent a magnificent opportunity to interest all 
the people in his work by presenting such subjects as: 

The Nature and Needs of the Child. 

School Records and School Efficiency. 

Social Effect of Moving Pictures Upon the Child. 

Rural School Consolidation. 

Advantages of an Agricultural (or Household 
Economics) Course to the Child. 

The local banker can discuss: 

How the Young Man Can Build a Credit. 

Financing the Cotton (Grain, Fruit, etc.) Crop. 

Cooperation Between Farmer, Business Man and 
Banker. 

In such a meeting the commercial secretary should 
find a great opportunity to enlist all the people in ef- 
forts to bring in new settlers and enterprises, or to 
promote the agricultural and commercial interests of 
the community. 

To amplify this list of subjects throughout the 
whole range of neighborhood life is not difficult. 

Social Side of School House Gatherings 

However worthy the undertaking or fraught with 
good for the people, no common gathering will con- 
tinue to draw representative attendance unless the 
recreational and the social features counterbalance 
the civic. Do not get too serious in planning your pro- 
grams. Ease up on the heavy stuff. Put some ginger 
into the meetings. Let the comic spirit have a chance. 

— 21— 



Unless a social center exerts the same kind of pull 
that a baseball game or a theatrical performance has, 
it will not succeed. The people will get best results 
when they go to these meetings because there is some- 
thing in them of real interest, and because they enjoy 
them. 

On the principle that everybody is there to have a 
good time, the chair will do well to disrobe his office 
of all semblance of officialism and to banish all form- 
ality. The fact that it is "everybody's meeting," 
should never escape an audience. This results in 
spontaneity. If the people come for several meetings 
and it is very difficult to interest them in the free dis- 
cussions, something is wrong. If it lies in the pro- 
grams, change them. Perhaps the subjects are too 
"high-browed." If so, get down to earth. But if the 
trouble lies in a reluctance to speak without prepara- 
tion, or from the fact that the people do not feel ex- 
actly at ease with one another, try the lubricating 
effect of song. 

How better open a social center gathering than 
by ten or fifteen minutes of good old-fashioned singing 
by the audience? Sing patriotic songs, or the social 
center songs used at Rochester, New York. One of 
these songs follows: 

WHAT "SOCIAL CENTER" MEANS. 
Air: "Auld Lang Syne." 

All. 

Did you ever stop to figure out 

What Social Center means? 

Here you will find democracy, 

Men-kings, and women-queens. 

Here, each one can express his thought; 

All stand on equal ground; 

Here DifTrences are all forgot, 

Here, Brotherhood is found. 

Boys. 

We boys, who used to waste our time 

On corners of the street, 

Now turn our back on loafing — 

We've a better place to meet; 

A place where we can build ourselves, 

Our body and our mind; 

And we will surely make good here. 

The Center pays; you'll find. 

—22— 



Girls. 

We girls, who used to pose in front 

Of mirrors half the day 

Now have the roses in our cheeks 

Our powder's thrown away, 

Wie know that brains are more than hats, 

That heads are more than hair; 

We're here because we mean to be 

Useful, as well as fair. 

Men. 

We men here meet without constraint 

Real questions to decide, 

To face the common enemy 

We stand here side by side. 

Old prejudice is on the run, 

Injustice, too, shall go. 

Why Rochester should not be right 

To us you'll have to show. 

Women. 

We women count as human here, 
We've heads as well as heart 
In solving civic problems we 
Have come to do our part. 
For the ideals of the home, 
Expression we shall find 
In cleaner, happier city-life 
More beautiful and kind. 

All. 

And so we've told you what to us 

The Social Center means; 

Here you will find democracy, 

Men-kings, and women-queens. 

Here each one can express his thought, 

All stand on equal ground, 

Here diff'rences are all forgot, 

Here Brotherhood is found. 

After the people have been warmed up by this 
singing, the chairman should have announcements 
read and carry out the program. This program was 
recently put on in a social center: 

Piano solo, by a young woman. 

Monolog, by a young man. 

Talk, "Neighbors of Yesterday and Today," by a 
middle-aged citizen. 

Two selections by the social center male quartet. 

Debate, "Resolved that the Express Business of 

—23— 



the Nation Should Be Owned by the People and Oper- 
ated by the Post Office Department." 

After the debate the subject was thrown open for 
discussion and comments were free and pertinent. 

Immediately after the regular program there 
should be a social gathering, chaperoned by the "Good- 
time Committee," whose duty will be to see that every- 
body does have "a good time." Sometimes this will 
not be practical on account of the length of time it 
takes to carry out the program and the time consumed 
by the free discussions. On other occasions, it is well 
to cut short the time for the program and allow for 
the social element. Refreshments add much to the 
zest of the occasion. Plenty of music, plenty of 
laughter and just enough of the serious, make an ideal 
evening; from it, people will go with pleasant mem- 
ories, looking forward to other meetings. 

Harnessing Social Forces for Small Town 
Advancement 

Not a few letters come to Farm and Ranch and 
Holland's Magazine asking for information on how to 
plan a program for advancement that will include all 
the social agencies in the town. 

Those who have this move at heart should first 
make a list of all the societies or organizations in the 
community. Next, have a meeting at which these or- 
ganizations are represented. Talk over the project 
and form a central committee from the delegates repre- 
sented. The central committee should select from with- 
in itself a small number of men and women who will 
undertake the executive work. Attached to this execu- 
tive committee should be the mayor and the president 
of the board of education (or the superintendent of 
schools), who will act as ex-officio members. 

The town is now in a position to go about the work 
of focusing its social forces in a methodical way. 
Through the central improvement committee the exact 
work of each organization and its plans can be ascer- 
tained. Through the executive committee, by counsel- 
ing and suggestion, this work can be shaped for the 
definite end of a town more alive and a deeper civic 
life. This will prevent much waste of social effort. 

—24— 



It will also prevent the development of prejudices and 
ill feelings, such as often arise from organizations dis- 
covering that they are duplicating each other's work. 
This executive committee will act as a clearing house 
for the social agencies of the town. 

This executive committee will find it valuable to 
inaugurate a social survey. This is, in reality, "to 
take stock" as far as each family in the community is 
concerned. The "surveyors" will ascertain how many 
social agencies, a s 
lodges, societies, and 
churches, reach into 
each family, or 
whether any do. 
They will find out at 
what center a farm 
family in the town's 
trade territory 
trades and why. 
They will also dis- 
cover what individ- 
uals think should be 

QOne tO make theirs School building erected by negro tenants on a 

a better city — how, 
etc. Other parts o% 
the survey should 
deal with sanitation, conditions of workers, etc. 

When this information is in hand, the committee 
can prepare a chart which will show graphically the 
social strength and weakness of the community. 

Such information is necessary before any com- 
munity can intelligently work toward solving its local 
problems, but it is not necessary to generate enthus- 
iasm. The enthusiasm must come from sincere per- 
sonalities who believe in the good to be done and the 
need for doing it. Individual earnestness leads to gen- 
eral earnestness, and the latter to social solidarity. 




Texas landlord's estate. It will be the 

first negro social center opened 

in the United States. 



—25— 



The Power of the Social Center 



CARROLL D. MURPHY 

BENEATH the lens, the gentle warmth of the sun 
becomes a glowing, burning white-heat. This is 
the meaning of focus. 

The powder that flashes when set off in the open, 
drives a half -ton projectile through a wall of steel ten 
miles away. This is the meaning of direction. 

At first test of the great church organ, the trum- 
pets and whistles jangle and discord; then the tuner, 
changing the aperture of a pipe by a tap of the ham- 
mer or touch of thumb and finger, brings out music. 
The very floor and walls and spire tremble in accord. 

That is the meaning of harmony, and there is in 
it such power as uncontrolled, by its unison of air- 
waves will send a great bridge or an enormous steel 
building to downfall and wreck. Controlled, its power 
is as great, and altogether for good. 

The Social Center is not something new any more 
than the sun's rays or the power of expansion, or the 
pulsing of air-waves. It is conscious focus, intelligent 
direction, pleasing harmony among the social forces 
and resources of the neighborhood. 

Social Center Directs and Simplifies Living. 

The Social Center makes to bloom the social bar- 
renness of families and neighborhoods which find noth- 
ing to do for instruction, profit and amusement. In a 
high degree it furnishes all these things. 

But no less does it meet the needs of the com- 
munity where everyone is too busy, where men and 
women and young folks "have too much to do" to take 
on any new social duties. Through direction, it sim- 
plifies social life. 

In every community there are some active social 
rays which can be focused into greater power: the 

—26— 



mothers' clubs, the woman's club, the neighborhood 
sewing circle, or cooking-class: the boys' corn club, 
the boys' and girls' hog club, or poultry club: the 
farmers' cooperative organization to sell cantaloupes 
or tomatoes or wheat or cauliflower : a school baseball 
association, a debating club, a bachelor-girls' club for 
fun, reading and dramatic clubs, musical organizations 
— good roads and good government clubs, and others 
peculiar to every neighborhood; indeed, we may add, 
every organization which looks to progress and would 
be benefited by the union of progressive forces. 

Makes the Home Town Better to Live In. 

The problem of city outstripping country is the 
problem of desertion. Instead of trade at home, build- 
ing at home, supplying amusements at home, country- 
folks and inhabitants of smaller towns desert to the 
city. The merchant birys his produce through the city 
commission man instead of from the home grower, or 
he fails to supply his store with the most popular lines 
carried by city stores. His trade often deserts in 
favor of the mail-order house and city store. Men and 
women who are able to make the home-town worth 
living in will instead, run up to the city for their en- 
tertainment. They seek conveniences elsewhere; at 
the winter resort, the watering-place, the summer re- 
sort. The home-town is left to the fly-specked show- 
case, the oil lamp, the bottomless street and the water 
supply "by elbow-grease." 

The Social Center redeems the home community: 
makes it the best place on earth to live — makes it 
more or less independent of the world for food, mer- 
chandise, conveniences and amusements. Tt saves the 
time and the money of those who now have to seek 
farther for these things. It teaches home production, 
home-selling and home-buying. It is all of a piece with 
modern economy of time and effort — with the Doctrine 
of the Shortest Distance between ambition and achieve- 
ment. 

What the Library Means In Social Center Work. 

In two West Texas towns it was a ladies' club and 
a mothers' club which first took up the banner of the 

—27— 



Social Center. In both instances the ladies began by 
securing a thoroughly up-to-date little library. Over 
and over, a library has proved an efficient Social Cen- 
ter nucleus. A library reception was held, which was 
made the occasion of a broader neighborhood organiza- 
tion. Library rooms were arranged, here in a school- 
building, there at the courthouse. Citizens were 
asked to donate other volumes for the library. 

It followed naturally that programs should be ar- 
ranged, using the library as a basis. There was a 
musical number, and the chorus, taken from a library 
volume, was written on the blackboard for all to join 
in. One number was a little one-act play — taken from 
a library volume. There were recitations by little 
folks and by higher students in school. The library 
furnished the material for a debate on an historical 
subject. 

As a change from the literary features, there were 
also six mysterious numbers on the program — demon- 
strations of "what I know best," which proved wonder- 
fully popular. One young lady knew doughnut-mak- 
ing best of all, and her demonstration was convincing : 
a young man who had been in railroad survey work, 
had an interesting little story to tell of being snowed- 
in in a tent among the mountains, and of the art of 
railroad making. One boy held the audience tense by 
his straight-forward description of growing good corn. 
A young man gave a punching-bag exhibition, and en- 
joyed the chance to demonstrate extraordinary skill. 

Good Books the Sign of a Progressive Community. 

Aside from use in programs, the library is still 
one of the first great resources of a Social Center. Sta- 
tistics show that to an extent far more deplorable than 
might be supposed the written knowledge and experi- 
ence of the ages is not at the disposal of our South- 
western communities as it should be in this Twentieth 
Century. The handicap which this represents, when 
our unlettered youths come into competition with a 
boy or girl entirely familiar with the world's best 
books, expert in finding anything he wants to know 
along any line by reference to authoritative texts, is 
pitiable. 

—28— 



Less than a year before the Southwestern Social 
Center Conference, almost a round million Texas 
school children were attending schools empty of good 
books (other than some required texts). This means 
nine town schools in ten; forty-nine rural schools in 
fifty ! It means 308,000 book-less town children ; 613,- 
000 book-less children of the wide lonely farm stretch- 
es, with their storm-bound days and their long winter 
hours of darkness. 

This was in Texas in 1910. How about the other 
Southwestern states? How about your district? Your 
school? Your children or pupils? Are they among 
the hundreds of progressive schools that have lifted 
themselves above this poverty since 1910? 

Nowadays a book can be had for the price of a 
cigar or a cup of coffee. Yet a little girl writes me : 

"I am nine years old and in the fourth grade. We 
have nothing but textbooks to read in our school. I 
would like to have other books to read, because we live 
twenty-nine miles in the country and get lonesome 
with nothing to read." 

Is that fair to the boys and girls ? Do you blame 
them for escaping, as they grow up, from this barren 
prospect to the glinting city parks, theaters, art mu- 
seums and libraries? 

Have you ever listened and wondered at the 
grudging singsong of the reading lesson at your 
school? And if so, have you watched the children 
reading ahead during the first days of the term till 
today's lesson is long since sucked dry of interest? 

Let us cherish that love of good reading — not 
starve it down! In your Social Center have palm to 
palm contact of neighbors; but no less worthwhile, 
mind-to-mind friendship with the greatest men of the 
world's history, immortalized between the covers upon 
your library shelves. 

Not only for present education and pleasure, but 
far more for instruction in the use of books as tools 
for enjoyment and advancement throughout life, the 
reading-room is the heart of any neighborhood devel- 
opment. 

It attracts young people from the street. It is 
the basis for gardening-classes, sewing-classes, cook- 

—29— 



ing-elasses, athletic contests and every interest which 
you will find dominant in any possible member of your 
Social Center. Therefore, reserve one room of the 
Social Center as a reading-room and equip it with the 
most popular, up-to-date and wisely chosen volumes. 

Success through Varied Programs for an Entire 

Season. 

Having made a social survey of the resources of 
the Social Center, one little community laid out such 
varied programs for several months ahead. Each pro- 
gram was in charge of a particular club or class in the 
Social Center, and every number was a popular suc- 
cess. 

First the young men w r ere put upon their mettle 
to entertain. At Thanksgiving time the Boys' Hog 
Club gave a most delightful pig-roast under the sky. 
The young ladies gave a beautiful Japanese entertain- 
ment with musical numbers in costume from 'The 
Mikado." The pressure of school work was relieved 
by holding some of the ordinary holiday celebrations 
in the evenings for the entertainment of the entire 
community — the anniversaries of Lee, Eugene Field 
and others being celebrated appropriately. (Such a 
list of special occasions is easily made up.) 

The season was a success and its popularity was 
evident in the growth of the Social Center which came 
with. it. A successful and popular first season is in- 
deed the best capital such a neighborhood enterprise 
can accumulate. By all means command ability, fore- 
sight, enthusiasm, the contest and team spirit, the full 
action of democracy, at the start of the Social Center. 

Do you know the resources of your neighborhood 
for entertainment and for better government? What 
the advertising men and the commercial secretaries 
seek to do for their communities — what every business 
man seeks to do for his business — this actual demon- 
stration of the social resources of your citizens and 
community, the Social Center will bring about. 



—30— 



Suggested Constitution 

For Neighborhood Civic Clubs 

Some communities desire to organize formally and adopt a 
constitution. Others do not care for anything - that restricts or de- 
fines their activities and purposes. For the benefit of the former 
we here present a suggested constitution, a modification of the one 
suggested by the University of Wisconsin and the Constitution of 
the Social Center Association of America: 

Preamble. 

Whereas, we the citizens of residing in the neigh- 
borhood of school, have duties to perform as citizens 

which require for their intelligent performance an understanding of 
the public questions of our time and a broad acquaintance with our 
fellows: 

And Whereas, the public school building affords a convenient 
place for the bettering of this understanding and the development 
of acquaintance through community use for free discussion of pub- 
lic questions and all wholesome civic, educational, moral and recre- 
ational activities, therefore we, the citizens of the neighborhood 

about constitute ourselves a Neighborhood Civic Club 

to hold meetings in the public school building. 

Name. 

The name of this society shall be the Neighborhood Civic Club, 

meeting in school. 

Object. 

The object of this club is stated in the preamble. 

Membership. 

The members of this club are all the people in the neighbor- 
hood of school; but active members shall be those who 

give their names to the secretary, as evidence of their endorsement 
of the purposes of this club. 

Rights of Members. 

All meetings of this club shall be open and non-exclusive. 

Officers. 

There shall be seven elected officers of this Club, namely: 
president, four vice-presidents, a secretary and a treasurer. 

Election of Officers. 

All of the officers shall be elected at the (annual) (semi-annual) 

meeting of the club which shall be held on to serve for 

a term of (one year) (six months) each. 

Duties of Officers. 

Section I. President: It shall be the duty of the President to 
preside at all meetings of the Club and also to serve as chairman 
of the executive committee of the Club. 

Section II. First Vice-President: It shall be the duty of the 
first Vice-President to preside at the meetings of the Club in the 
absence or at the request of the President. 

Section III. Second Vice-President: It shall be the duty of 
the Second Vice-President to serve as chairman of the Program 
Committee of the Club. 

Section IV. Third Vice-President: It shall be the duty of the 
Third Vice-President to serve as chairman of the Legislative and 
Improvement Committee of the Club. 

Section V. Fourth Vice-President: It shall be the duty of the 

—31— 



Fourth Vice-President to serve as chairman of the Social Commit- 
tee of the Club. 

Section VI. Secretary: It shall be the duty of the Secretary 
of the Club to keep the minutes of the proceedings of this Club in 
a book — the property of the Club — to keep a list of active members, 
to receive additions to this list, to carry on the correspondence of 
the Club, and to fulfill such other duties as usually pertain to this 
office. 

Section VII. Treasurer: It shall be the duty of the Treasurer 
to handle the money of this Club, to make all collections for the 
expenses of the Club, to keep a record of all moneys received, spent, 
and on hand, and to report upon the state of the treasury whenever 
called upon to do so. 

Committees. 

There shall be four committees of the Club, namely, the Ex- 
ecutive Committee, the Program Committee, the Legislative and 
Improvement Committee, and the Social Committee. 

Duties of Committees. 

Section 1. Executive Committee: The Executive Committee 
shall consist of the elected officers of the Club. It shall be the 
dut3 T of this committee to confer upon questions regarding the wel- 
fare of the Club, to consider and recommend matters of importance 
to the Club, and in unusual matters requiring haste, to act for the 
Club. 

Section II. Program Committee: The Program Committee 
shall consist of the Second Vice-President and four other members 
chosen by him. It shall be the duty of the committee to arrange 
programs for all of the meetings of the Club, to secure speakers, 
and to suggest topics of discussion which shall assure live, inter- 
esting, and profitable meetings. 

Section III. Legislative and Improvement Committee: The 
Legislative and Improvement Committee shall consist of the Third 
Vice-President and four members chosen by him. It shall be the 
duty of this committee to investigate all matters recommended for 
legislation and all questions of local improvement which may be re- 
ferred to it by the Club, also to suggest matters upon which the 
Club should act. 

Section IV. Social Committee: The Social Committee shall 
consist of the Fourth Vice-President and four other members ap- 
pointed by him. It shall be the duty of the Social Committee to 
promote neighborhood hospitality, through the arrangement of such 
special programs, entertainments, serving of refreshments or other 
social features as the Club may from time to time direct or desire. 

Meeting's. 

The Club shall hold a regular meeting each evening 

in the room in the school between 7:30 and 

10:00 o'clock. 

Dues. 

There shall be no regular dues of this Club. Active members 

of the club may contribute cents per year to pay the expense 

of sending notices of the meetings of the Club and such other inci- 
dental expenses as may be incurred. 

Quorum. 

Ten active members of the Club shall constitute a quorum for 
the transaction of all business. 

Amendments. 

This constitution may be altered or amended by a two-thirds 
vote of the members present at any regular meeting. 

EY-LAWS AND ORDER OF BUSINESS. 

By-Law I. The meeting shall be called to order by eight o'clock 
or earlier, so that the business routine may be disposed of and the 
speaker of the evening may be introduced not later than" fifteen 
minutes past eight. 

The main address should be finished and the subject of the 
evening thrown open for general discussion at or before nine o'clock. 

This discussion should last not longer than three-quarters of 

—32— 



an hour, and should close with a ten minute opportunity for the 
speaker to sum up the discussion and to answer questions. 

By-Law II. The chairman of the meeting should leave the 
chair in order to engage in discussion. 

Bj'-Law III. In speaking from the floor in the open discussion 
which follows the main address, the parliamentary rules of ad- 
dressing the chair, etc., should be strictly followed. 

By-Law IV. Speeches from the floor are limited to five min- 
utes and the time may be extended only by unanimous consent. 

By-Law V. No speaker may have the floor a second time un- 
less all others "who wish to speak have had opportunity to do so. 

By-Law VI. Speeches from the floor must deal with the sub- 
ject chosen for discussion. 

Order of Business. 

I. Call to order. 

II. Report of standing committees. 

III. Report of special committees. 

IV. Treasurer's report. 

V. Unfinished business. 

VI. New business. 

VII. Special program. 

VIII. Discussion. 



IX. Adjournment. 



Bibliography 



FARM AND RANCH for 1910. 

Civic Unity for the Southwest (Holman), 12-1; 13-20; 
15-2; Social Centers in Rural Communities, 21-2; Progress 
of Movement (Holman), 42-16; In the Country, 48-7; Le- 
fevre on, 48-12; Country Schoolhouse as a Social Center, 
48-12; Practical Social Center Organization, 49-13; Smith's 
Chapel (C. D. Murphy), 51-7; Farmers of the Future (Hol- 
man), 51-1; Benefits of Rural Organization (Newman), 
26-4; Relation of the Rural School to Community Progress, 
33-11; 36-22; Schools as Social Centers, 14-9; Libraries as 
Social Center Nuclei, 43-8; 49-8: 5.1-9. 
FARM AND RANCH for 1911. 

Farmers of the Future (Holman), 1-2; 3-2 ;4. Troubles 
of a Rural Social Center (Bush), 3-13; Conference Called 
by F. P. Holland, 5-8: On Social Centers, 8-7; Awakening, 
6-7; 27-13; A Necessity, 9-16; Discussions, 17-16; 12-29; 
Social Centers Approved in Oklahoma, 22-12; National Con- 
ference (Ward), 27-13; Social Center Association of Amer- 
ica, 28-13; Established by R. E. Smith, 15-18: Why You 
and I Need the Social Center (Holman), 39-27: National 
Conference, 41-3; Social Center and Farmers' Union, 47-15; 
Farmers' Part in Development (Holman), 49-7; Social Cen- 
ter in a Renter Neighborhood (Holman), 52-1-2. 
FARM AND RANCH for 1912. 

How to Organize a Country Social Center (Communi- 
ties Forward Department), 3-24; Practical Hows, 4-19; 
Practical Hows, 5 — . Consult later issues in 1912. 

(Explanation. — Reference is made here to number of 
issue and page, as 3-13 would refer to issue number 3, 
page 13). 

HOLLAND'S MAGAZINE for 1911. 

Work of Miss Lida Dougherty, March issue, page 13 ; 
The Neglected Small Town (Holman), May issue, page 1; 
Getting our Money's Worth (Editorial), December issue, 
page 10. 

Consult later issues in 1912. 
Ward, E. J. — :— 

Rochester's Social Centers and Civic Clubs — -Story of 
the First Two Years. 

—33— 



11 1912 



Common Ground- 



Periodical published in 1910 by the Rochester Social 
Centers. 

Country Life Commission- 



Report to President Roosevelt. 

Rural Life Conference, University of Virginia 

Alumni Bulletin, 1910. 

National Municipal League 

Report of Education Extension Committee, 1910. 
Texas Federation of Women's Clubs 

Report of Education Committee, 1910, and 1911. 
Riggs, J. F. 

Condition and Needs of Iowa Rural Schools (Annual 
Report of Supt. of Instruction, 1905.) 
Butterfield, Kenyon L. 

"Chapters on Rural Progress." 
Kern, O. J. 

"Among Country Schools." 

Perry, Clarence A. 

"Wider Use of the School Plant." 

Conference on Education in Texas 

The Country High School. (Bulletin.) 

Ellis, A. Caswell 

Relation of a Nation's Social Ideals to its Educational 
System (Bulletin Univ. of Texas). 

National Society for Study of Education, — 10th annual report in two 
volumes. 

Survey (New York City) for 1911, Southwestern Social Center Con- 
ference (E. J. Ward), March 18; Focusing Social Forces in 
the Southwest (Holman). 

La Follette's Magazine for 1911 — see issue March 18; for 1912 see 
issue of January 27. 

Zueblin, Charles 

Public Schools. 

American Municipal Progress 1902, pp. 159-160; 358. 

Names of publishers and details, also reference to later matter 
on Social Centers, and Library aid, may be had by writing the Social 
Center Service, Farm and Ranch — Holland's, Dallas, Texas. 



— 84- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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